Pickleball Courts Are Officially Coming To Madison

MADISON, NJ — Get out your racquets, a new pickleball court is coming to Madison.

Madison is one of many towns that have jumped on board with the pickleball craze, which has been on the rise in recent years, necessitating the addition of an additional court, according to Mayor Bob Conley.

Conley has been working with the Madison Basketball Association to find a new pickleball location, according to a presentation given at this week's Council meeting. Conley stated that he has been working with the Madison Basketball Association to find a new pickleball location because the Dodge courts are often unavailable during the summer and the Madison High School gym is overused.

The future court would be a small multi-purpose court that could be used for both pickleball and basketball, officials said.

Over the last few years the decision over adding a new court, according to Conley, has been passed around to the Open Space Committee, Environmental Commission, Shade Tree Commission, Recreation Advisory and Parks Advisory.

"What we asked each of those committees, is to look at the project through their filter that's defined by their missions. For example, the Shade Tree Commission would certainly not be looking at the courts as 'is that the best place to play pickleball?' They would be looking at the courts as what is the impact on the shade trees of Madison," Conley said.

The first potential pickleball facility location is at the Madison Recreation Center, near the existing pickleball and tennis courts. This court site would connect to new wheelchair-accessible trails and there are also concerns over its impervious coverage and vegetation removal.

The Recreation Advisory Committee and the Parks Advisory Committee prefer this option, which is estimated to cost $200,000. The Open Space, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Committee also voted in favor of this option, approving the use of $80,000 in Open Space funds for the project.

The second option would be to locate the court in the Recreation Center's auxiliary parking lot. This area is already wired for electricity, would cost about $160,000, is close to the rest of the facility and would not require tree removal, according to Conley.

"The loss of parking is an issue and talking to Captain Longo, he was talking about just this past Saturday with a number of youth activities going on at the turf fields that the parking lot is filled," Conley said.

Six other locations were considered but not chosen. Two were in the vicinity of the borough swimming pool, one in the vicinity of Bayley Ellard, two in the vicinity of Dodge Field and one in the vicinity of the MRC Hut. Those six sites were rejected due to concerns such as potential noise disturbance complaints and inaccurate court dimensions.

Conley claims that the goal is to secure the court's funding this winter so that construction on the court can start early in the following spring.